The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1887-08-05
Silly ARGUMENTS


SILLY ARGUMENTS
vaan E9sses u Frss.rssAs 0ress -
Bv1oe self-kvtoene Hasta.
A Chicago free-trade journal, strur.
Cling oft and vainly to get away from
the direct differences Of certain i'm
plicit truths upon which papers a
high standing have made strong argo.
ments for . continuance Of the protect
i've policy. was recently led to Some
very remarkable admissions and con-
illusions. -
The annoying truths which the Chi
cago organ Of the English Golden Club
resented were these:
Great Britain sells four times - mach tom.
Ill as the United States does, nine times moe0
TO Uruguay, ten times moro to the Argentina
Republic. Why! Great Britain subsidises .
merchant hest to sail along the South Amefi-
can coast through the Straits OF Magellan,
resping surprising prolt in return for ~
subsidy expended" That IL why. The -
vantages of nature are with us; the advantage
OF liberal market policy Is with our rival.
The Chicago Cobdenite says: .sTush.
tush. England has not gained her
foreign trade by subsidies to her MGR
camille navy, but by selling goods
cheaper than other nations have done.
Therefore Americas foreign trade can
be better increased by selling goods
cheaper than heretofore, than by Civ
ing bounties to American ships. There
fore let us have free trade that we may
have cheaper goods" This is an hon
est condensation of argument number
one of the Chicago Cobdenite. Let is
be examined. If VIC are to have
cheaper goods by importation than by
domestic manufacture, then domestic
manufactures will quickly cease. Amer
lean cotton mills and iron foundries
will be closed and American workmen
reduced to pauperism; which is exactly
what all protectiOnists have asserted,
and what all American CObdenites have
denied.
But, leaving out of sight the misery
resultant from the destruction of Amer.
lean manufactures, how can the Cob
denite predict an increase of Americas
foreign trade from abolition of protect
i've duties? The very essence Of it's
argument is that England has tho
larger free trade because it has tho
power of producing goods more cheap
ly. Now, even if English goods were
admitted duty free to American ports
they could never be loaded and To
shipped to South America as cheaply
as they could be taken there directly
from England. so that to place our
native jObbers-our native manufac-
turer having been destroyed by free
trade-on an equality with English
shippers we should have to ask gov
eminent for a bounty to every pur-
chaser of English goods beyond given
sum. and this bounty might represent
the profit to the American who i'm
ported goods from England and then
exported them to South America. In
NO other way could even an appear
ance of American export trade in
manufactured goods be kept up after
the protective system had been abol-
ished.
That which does duty for argument
number two of the Chicago Cobdenite
is this:
The prolific parent Of Industrial strife and
strikes Is too much tariff, and ut the same time
1t attracts hither the sOcalistic scum and tur-
bulent element Of Europe, who come over In
nyriads to partake Of the robbery of the Amer
lean farmers and consumers.
1t should be well considered by tho
American workman and the Americas
farmer that what the Cobdenite means
by 1.-THE robbery of the American
farmers and consumers" of which the
''socialistic scum partakes," is the
high wages which protection confers
upon labor in the United States.
So far as the farmer is directly con-
cerned. the rapid increase of our pop
ulation is the one thing that prevents
his grain from sinking to the lowest
rate, in the face of the competition Of
the pauper labor in the East Indian
wheat fields. Prices are stiffened by
large home market for they supply q
well-paid, and therefore well-fcd, body
of wOrkmen. But the main point il
that the "soclalistic scum of Europe
comes here. attracted by high wages.
Why is there large body of socialistic
scum in Europe. and hardly a trace Of
it among native Americans? Clearly
because low wages, always growing
lower. have made large body of Eu-
laborers hopeless and desper-
ate. and because the well-paid. WELL
fed, well-educated American labOrer u
hopeful and ambitious. Now" says
the Chicago Cobdenite. ''let us change
all this; let US give the socialistic scum
Of Europe no inducement to come hith-
er. by the simple process of reducing
our native wOrkmen 10 the EurOpeaA
level"
There is really no other interprcta-
ton than just this-''make the Ameri-
can laborer's condition as wretched 40
that of the European laborer, and the
socialistic scum of Europe will not en-
igrate. That is to say. make the
workman's lot so vile that
he shall be tempted into socialism, and
then we shall have no foreign social
ism to deal with. The free-trader il
for protection to one native industry
at lecst-the manufacture of Socialists
from non-contented Americans. BY
propounded. by whatever
agency disseminated, such teaching u
abhOrrent to American republicanism.
The first duty of the Nation is to Sc
cure . comfortable existence to tho
of the people. and a majority